Category: Perrotin

My Dear Great-great Grandparents, François and Catherine, A reminder popped up on my calendar today that you, Francois, died of meningitis 127 years ago, on May 25, 1891. It prompted me to reflect on your lives and the values you imparted to your descendants, now seven … Continue reading "Letter to My Great-Great Grandparents"

Do you know this soldier? This photograph of an unidentified young soldier was in a frame with a family tree group, hanging on a wall in my Aunt’s living room. Is he English? When my family and I traveled to Mexico City to visit our Huesca family in June 2003, I spotted a large … Continue reading "Friday’s Faces from the Past"

California Poppy, Flickr Photos, courtesy Brian Having packed our 1962 Ford Falcon station wagon to the hilt for the long drive to California, my father, Gilbert Cayetano Huesca, stopped one last time at my grandmother’s home so our family could give her one last goodbye kiss. She was 68 years old by then and had … Continue reading "Traveling Tuesday: California Here We Come"

When we moved from Mexico City to California in the spring of 1967, what I dreaded most was being far from our extended Huesca family. Cause for Celebration: Our family got together for holidays but also birthdays, anniversaries, and other special occasions, such as this one, taken between 1956 – 57. My mother wrote the names on … Continue reading "Sentimental Sunday: Family Treasures"

Mmm…that feeling you get when “comfort food” takes you back. Rice Pudding, also known in Spain and Latin America as Arroz con Leche. Courtesy Wikipedia; in the public domain. Having cooked for her family’s two hotels in Veracruz state in the 1920s and 30s and for her family of 13 every day for much of … Continue reading "Family Recipe Friday: Arroz con Leche (Rice Pudding)"

María Angela Catalina (Perrotin) Huesca (1893 – 1998) My grandmother or “Abuelita,” shown here at her apartment in about 1983, when she was 90 years old. She lived independently until her death a month before her 105th birthday. I am back to posting after a hiatus of several weeks. It is true that remembering … Continue reading "Family Recipe Friday: Abuelita’s Mexican Rice"

Gilbert Cayetano Huesca (1915 – 2009) [Note: Amanuensis is an ancient word meaning one who performs the function of writing down or transcribing the words of another. Derived from the Latin root manu- , meaning manual or hand, the word also has been used as a synonym for secretary or scribe.] My father, Gilbert Huesca, August 2008 My father’s earliest memory … Continue reading "Amanuensis Monday: It Came Back to Me in a Dream"

Gilbert Cayetano Huesca (1915 – 2009) My father, Gilbert Huesca, on one of his business trips, climbing up a Pemex Mexican Petroleum oil tank, Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico In 1947, the man who would become my beloved father, Gilbert Huesca, was a 32- year-old commercial artist from Mexico City who was eager to see the world and … Continue reading "Those Places Thursday: North to Chicago"